Warden Class gets an overhaul!

Vaoh

Did you want to be an Ice Mage Warden, in the same way we already have Storm Mage Sorcerers and Fire Mage Dragonknights?
Did you want a Nature Mage Warden that wasn’t considered the all-around absolute worst DPS in ESO history and a letdown in PvP because of all the nerfs (lol no stun)?
Did you want your Stam Warden to not be the worst Stam DD in PvE, yet now live with the fact they’ll never get buffed because the PvP Stam Warden is OP?
Did you want a Bow-based Stam Warden that is also a great PvE DPS while fighting alongside a wolf because it’s Ranger/Druid/Warden-like to do that?
Do you want Wardens to have an advantage enough with Ice Staves for them to become viable for DPS, even if it stays a tanking weapon as a whole?

Well here’s a revamped Warden class that solves all of these issues and is more hybrid friendly in the process. If these changes happened it would solve all of the issues of a Warden and create multiple viable ways to play the class (especially as DPS) instead of the singular, linear path that all classes are starting to go down. Every class (yes, even NBs) could use a bit of a revamp but I had waaay too much free time and wrote this up for Warden because it’s my favorite class and in more need of a revamp than the others! We can all dream that one day the classes won’t feel so homogenized like they have over the past 1-2 years.....

The goals:

- Buff PvE Ice Mage Warden DPS a lot and make it a real, supported playstyle while not asking for any changes that affect the Ice Staff itself or steal from the tanky side of Winter’s Embrace
- Buff PvE Mag Warden non-bear DPS without forcing them into the Ice Mage theme (meaning there’s more than one unique way to play them viably) and giving them some much needed group utility
- Keep PvE Mag Warden with Bear DPS similar with only minor changes, but make the bear die less too (they aren’t as bad as most ppl think)
- Make the Mag Warden rotation not as punishing for those who don’t keep up their DoTs absolutely perfectly (nearly impossible for even the very best players in trials on console)
- Buff PvE Stam Warden DPS a bit to become wanted in raids, while not buffing PvP Stam Warden at all
- Buff Stam Warden Bow DPS a lot so it’s on par, without affecting regular Stam Warden DPS and making them too strong
- Small buffs overall to Warden Healers to become truly useful alongside Templar Healers (the *only* place Warden Healers are in this position atm is Cloudrest)
- Small buffs overall to Warden Tanks for formerly undertuned skills, in order to help them a bit especially in light of the nerf to Crystallized Shield+morphs which was all-around overtuned. In the end they are a bit better in PvE but a bit worse in PvP (which is what is needed).
- Buffs to PvP Magicka Warden to help them become viable whether focused in Ice Magic or not, and ofc giving them a class-based *stun*
- Nerfs to PvP Stam Warden which is too strong atm in both burst Dmg and defense, so that they are brought down to a reasonable level
- Nerf to Crystallized Shield and Shimmering Shield in particular which is simply too good without taking away what it already does, and buff to a Crystallized Slab so there’s an actual choice between the two morphs
- Big help to any Hybrid builds by making simple/obvious changes so you can get buffs more easily (has no effect on Mag/Stam builds)

The changes! (note: If you don’t care about this class and have barely played it, or don’t even know what the original skills do, you will be totally lost lol)

Animal Companions

Ult. Wild Guardian

Cast Time - 2.5 seconds
Target - Self
Cost - 75 Ultimate
Rouse a loyal grizzly to fight at your side. The grizzly's swipe deals X Magic Damage.

Once summoned, you can activate Guardian's Wrath for 75 ultimate. Causes X Magic Damage and deals 100% additional damage to targets under 25% health.
The bear purges itself of all snares and immobilization effects when Guardian’s Wrath is activated.

The grizzly's attacks do an additional 12% damage.

Damage taken by the grizzly from a single tick of damage cannot exceed more than 90% of its health.

—————
• Wild Guardian sounds better than Feral Guardian - you’re in control of your bear so it’s not Feral, though ofc it’s Wild
• Finally the bear will survive oneshot mechanics if at 90% or more Health at the time. Simple solution that has zero effect anywhere outside of a few pure PvE-based trial oneshots, without making them outright immune. It also adds smart play in terms of needing to heal your Bear or risk it dying to the next oneshot. This will help Wardens especially in not-so experienced groups.
• Purges snares/immobilizations on cast so that the Ultimate Ability isn’t rendered useless by a single, long duration root

Eternal Guardian

Cast Time - 2.5 seconds
Target - Self
Cost - 75 Ultimate
Rouse a loyal grizzly to fight at your side. The grizzly's swipe deals X Magic Damage.

Once summoned, you can activate Guardian's Wrath for 75 ultimate. Causes X Magic Damage and deals 100% additional damage to targets under 25% health.
The bear purges itself of all snares and immobilization effects when Guardian’s Wrath is activated.

The grizzly's attacks do an additional 21% damage.

Damage taken by the grizzly from a single tick of damage cannot exceed more than 75% of its health. When killed the bear will instantly respawn, with a cooldown of 1 minute.

—————
• From 90% Health Max Damage to 75%. This skill should really feel more “Eternal” than it does, especially since it already has a free respawn. It will feel more reliable than it currently does

Evergreen Protector

Cast Time - 2.5 seconds
Target - Self
Cost - 75 Ultimate
Call upon a great wolf to fight at your side. The wolf’s bite deals X Physical Damage. The wolf will slash the target on occasion for X Poison Damage over 3 seconds.

Once summoned, you can activate Protector’s Smite for 75 ultimate. Causes X Physical Damage and deals 100% additional damage to targets under 25% health. This will also inflict a bleed for X Physical Damage over 10 seconds which heals the wolf for the damage dealt.
The wolf purges itself of all snares and immobilization effects when Protector’s Smite is activated.

The wolf’s attacks do an additional 21% damage. In addition, damage taken by the wolf from a single tick of damage cannot exceed more than 90% of its health.

—————
• Buff to the survivability of this Ult, though working in a different way than the other morph. Should also deal more DPS to put Stam Warden on par with every other DPS
• Lots of people expected a wolf from the Warden. Here it is and in a more useful way
• The wolf’s slash would happen every 5-6 seconds, maintaining about 50% uptime on the target. It has no AoE or CC attacks though unlike the bear, which is okay since it gives great single target damage.

1. Dive

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Enemy
Range - 28 meters
Cost - Magicka
Command a Cliff Racer to dive bomb the enemy, dealing X Magic Damage. Deals 20% additional damage against targets under 25% Health.

—————
• This skill was too plain - it did only one singular thing (an issue Swarm also has) which also made it weak
• Warden needs an execute and more reasons to use Dive. The addition of a nice bit of execute damage provides some extra DPS in execute which Wardens lack without their Ult.

Piercing Dive

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Enemy
Range - 28 meters
Cost - Magicka or Stamina
Command a Cliff Racer to dive bomb the enemy, dealing X Physical Damage or X Magic Damage, based on your highest stat. Deals 20% additional damage against targets under 25% Health. The Cliff Racer has a 50% to pierce the target, causing it to also deal its damage to up to 2 nearby enemies.

Deals up to 15% increased damage to enemies at longer range. If the full damage bonus is realized, the original target is also afflicted with Minor Fracture for 8 seconds.

—————
• Gives the range buff to Bow builds which synergies with it well. Also gives Minor Fracture when used at a range to incentivize actually using this over other, currently better options. Will help make Stam Warden (in particular with Bow) become useful in a PvE group environment and provide them the cleave damage they needed Shrouded dagger for.
• Magicka Wardens not focused in Ice Magic can still use Piercing Dive to great effect since it will choose Magic or Physical Damage based on your highest damaging stats in the same way Ultimates do (Max Mag/Spell Dmg or Max Stam/Wpn Dmg). It’s
• Has great cleave AoE unlike the other morph

Frigid Torrent

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Enemy
Range - 28 meters
Cost - Magicka
Call upon the coldest magic of nature to bombard your enemy with 4 icy shards. Each shard deals X Frost Damage. Deals 50% additional damage against targets under 20% Health.

15% chance on Frigid Torrent cast to proc Hail Storm, causing your next cast of this skill to launch 8 icy shards, each striking for 55% of a Frigid Torrent shard’s damage.

Casting this skill on an Off-Balance target refunds its cost. This skill cannot proc the Chilled status effect.

—————
• 10% cost increase over Dive
• Off-Balance refund should help with sustain
• Launches 4 small ice crystals forward on each cast, though spread out in a circle in front of your character’s chest area (not in a line). If you spam this skill it looks like a never-ending torrent of ice projectiles where every 0.25 sec you launch one projectile
• The damage of each icy shard should equal 90% the damage of the frost component of Force Shock. It is therefore a barely stronger spammable than Force Pulse and *without* any status effect proc chances. .
• Hail Storm’s shards each have only 55% of the damage of a Frigid Torrent shard. A Hail Storm cast would therefore deal 140% the total damage of a normal Frigid Torrent cast, though with much more dodgeability.
• Hail Storm launches projectiles upward to arc down on the enemy. The projectiles launch over 2-3 seconds though despite the cast itself being instant (meaning you can get hit by a few but then dodge the rest in PvP) making it not an OP skill by any means.

• Has the downside of being purely single target. So the line-up of spammables would be:
- Force Pulse which has decent damage, status effect procs, and cleave damage
- Piercing Dive which has nice single target damage, cleave damage, but no status effects
- Elemental Weapon which has high damage, status effect procs, but no cleave damage
- Frigid Torrent which has decent damage, but no cleave damage or status effect, though it has an increased damage proc and benefits a lot from the many new Frost Damage % buffs. Not as useful as other spammables unless you build as an Ice Mage
.... lots of viable choices -> lots of viable builds

2. Scorch

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 5 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Stir a group of Shalk that attack after 3 seconds, dealing X Magic Damage to enemies in front of you.

—————
• None

Subterranean Assault

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 5 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Stamina
Stir a group of Shalk that attack after 3 seconds, dealing X Poison Damage to enemies in front of you.
Enemies damaged are afflicted with Major Breach and Major Fracture, reducing their Spell Resistance and Physical Resistance by 5280 for 6 seconds. In addition, targets take 10% more damage from your Subterranean Assault for 6 seconds.

—————
• Revert the nerf to Major Fracture duration and removal of Major Breech duration. This is key to the Warden Tank/Healer Support roles. However, reduce the debuff duration from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
• *Edited this part a bit* A -25% Damage nerf to this morph, weakening the currently overperforming PvP Stamina Warden, while barely touching the PvE Stam Warden.
*10% of this Damage is given back through a buff to Bull Netch
*5% through a buff to Piercing Cold.
It’s essentially a **-10% Damage nerf** on the first Subterranean Assault and a **0% Damage nerf aka no change** for subsequent Subterranean Assaults. This means if you consistently land your Subterranean Assault on a target (not always easy) then you benefit more from your skilled play. This was done to reduce PvP Stam Warden initial burst potential while keeping it almost exactly the same in PvE.
• These damage values can definitely be adjusted to -5%, -10%, -20%, etc - there’s no way to really know what is best for balance because we will never be able to test it with all of the other class changes also implemented.
• Lastly a 5% increase to the cost of this skill, which is fully refunded by the Bull Netch (will be a 5% reduction in cost if using Bull Netch, which is always the case).

Deep Fissure

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 5 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Stir a group of Shalk that attack after 3 seconds, dealing X Magic Damage to enemies in front of you. An eruption stuns one enemy for 3 seconds.

—————
• Remove the AoE Major Breach buff
• Simply revert the stun nerf

3. Swarm

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Enemy
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 10 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Unleash a swarm of fetcherflies to relentlessly attack an enemy, dealing X Magic Damage over 10 seconds, and causing them to take 2% additional Magic Damage from all sources for 14 seconds.

—————
• Makes a Mag Warden more useful in a raid for the first time ever due to group utility. The 2% is enough to be nice in a PvE raid, but low enough to not be mandatory or have any noticeable effect in PvP. It also purposely supports only a Magic-based Magicka Warden DPS instead of also an Ice-based Magicka Warden DPS.

Fletcher Infection

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Enemy
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 10 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Unleash a swarm of fetcherflies to relentlessly attack an enemy, dealing X Magic Damage over 10 seconds, and causing them to take 2% additional Magic Damage from all sources for 14 seconds.
Every second cast of this ability deals 50% increased damage, but does not refresh the debuff duration.

—————
• This downside will make it not such a superior morph to the other choice. You get more damage, but aren’t as good at reapplying the debuff.
• No changes other than what was changed due to the base skill

Growing Swarm

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Enemy
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 10 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Unleash a swarm of fetcherflies to relentlessly attack an enemy, dealing X Magic Damage over 10 seconds, and causing them to take 2% additional Magic Damage from all sources for 14 seconds.
When this ability ends, the fetcherflies infect up to 6 new targets near the enemy.

—————
• This morph is now more enticing (formerly useless) due to better spreading of the debuff instead of just damage. It will also provide higher uptime on the debuff in a rotation.
• No changes other than what was changed due to the base skill.

4. Betty Netch

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 25 seconds
Cost - None
Call a betty netch to your side, which restores 3555 Magicka to you over 24 seconds and grants you Major Sorcery and Major Brutality, increasing your Spell and Weapon Damage by 20%.

—————
• No longer punishing toward hybrids - both Major buffs are now applied
• No change to regular Stam/Mag builds - you now have a choice instead of purely Stam vs Mag

Blue Betty

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 25 seconds
Cost - None
Call a betty netch to your side, which restores 4029 Magicka to you over 27 seconds and grants you Major Sorcery and Major Brutality, increasing your Spell and Weapon Damage by 20%. When the netch is summoned, it removes 1 negative effect from you.

—————
• No changes other than what was changed due to the base skill

Bull Netch

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 25 seconds
Cost - None
Call a bull netch to your side, which restores 4029 Stamina to you over 27 seconds and grants you Major Sorcery and Major Brutality, increasing your Spell and Weapon Damage by 20%. Increases damage dealt with poison damage skills and reduces their cost by 10% while active.

—————
• Buffs up damage mainly dealt by Bow builds to encourage their use, and makes up for some of the damage taken from Subterranean Assault, as well as fully making up for their cost increase.

5. Falcon's Swiftness

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Invoke the spirit of agility to gain Major Expedition and Major Endurance, increasing your Movement Speed by 30% and Stamina Recovery by 20% for 10 seconds.

—————
• No changes

Deceptive Predator

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Invoke the spirit of agility to gain Major Expedition, Major Endurance and Minor Evasion, increasing your Movement Speed by 30%, Stamina Recovery by 20%, and dodge chance by 5% for 14 seconds.

Activating this ability removes all snares and immobilizations from you. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.

—————
• 5% increased cost - this skill is very strong and feels a bit cheap for what it does
• Same treatment as the DKs received for Reflective Plate, though this version has a 10 second cooldown or it’d simply be too strong. It’s not nearly as strong as the cheap cost and 8sec immunity of Forward Momentum, but it is a tremendous help to solo/small group Mag Wardens just to have that brief respite.
• The choice is now longer duration, tiny bit of dodge chance, and a snare/root purge once per 10sec, or a powerful damage buff for increased burst and slightly reduced cost.

Bird of Prey

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Invoke the spirit of agility to gain Major Expedition, Major Endurance and Minor Berserk, increasing your Movement Speed by 30%, Stamina Recovery by 20%, and damage done by 8% for 10 seconds. .

—————
• No changes

• Bond with Nature

When one of your animal companions is killed or unsummoned, you're restored 1260 Health.

—————
• No changes

• Savage Beast

Activating an Animal Companion ability grants 4 Ultimate. This effect has a cooldown of 8 seconds.

—————
• No changes

• Flourish

Increases your Magicka and Stamina recovery by 12% if an Animal Companion ability is slotted.

—————
• No changes

• Advanced Species

Increases your damage done by 2% for each Animal Companion ability slotted.

—————
• No changes

Green Balance

Ult. Secluded Grove

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - 75 Ultimate
Swell a healing forest at the target location, instantly healing the most injured friendly target for X Health. The forest continues to heal you and your allies in the area for X Health every 1 second for 6 seconds.

—————
• No changes

Healing Thicket

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - 75 Ultimate
Swell a healing forest at the target location, instantly healing the most injured friendly target for X Health. The forest continues to heal you and your allies in the area for X every 1 second for 6 seconds. The healing over time will continue to heal you or your allies for 4 seconds after leaving the forest.

—————
• No changes

Enchanted Forest

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - 75 Ultimate
Swell a healing forest at the target location, instantly healing the most injured friendly target for X Health. The forest continues to heal you and your allies in the area for X every 1 second for 6 seconds. You generate 20 Ultimate if the initial heal is used on a friendly target under 50% Health.

—————
• No changes

1. Fungal Growth

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Cone
Radius - 20 meters
Cost - Magicka
Seed a large area of mushrooms that heals you and all allies in your frontal cone for X Health.

—————
• No changes

Enchanted Growth

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Cone
Radius - 28 meters
Cost - Magicka
Seed a large area of mushrooms that heals you and all allies in your frontal cone fo X Health. Allies affected gain Minor Intellect and Minor Endurance, increasing Magicka and Stamina Recovery by 10% for 20 seconds.

—————
• Increase the size of the cone - small buff to help Healers in less experienced groups

Soothing Spores

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Cone
Radius - 20 meters
Cost - Stamina
Seed a large area of mushrooms that heals you and all allies in your frontal cone for X Health. If healing an ally less than 8m away, the heal is 15% stronger.

—————
• No changes

2. Healing Seed

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Summon a field of flowers which blooms after 6 seconds, healing you and allies in the area for X Health. An ally within the field can activate the ​ Harvest synergy, healing for X Health over 5 seconds.

—————
• Reduce the healing by 5% - it is very strong.

Budding Seeds

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Summon a field of flowers which blooms after 6 seconds, healing you and allies in the area for X Health. Only 1 field may be active at a time. While the field grows, you can activate this ability again to cause it to instantly bloom. An ally within the field can activate the ​ Harvest synergy, healing for X Health over 5 seconds. In addition, allies standing within the radius gain Minor Vitality.

—————
• Buff to Warden Healers - will make this skill much more worth casting over another Healing Springs
• Reduce heal strength from this skill by 8%, so the addition of Minor Vitality doesn’t buff this skill’s healing in particular (already good).

Corrupted Pollon

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Summon a field of flowers which blooms after 6 seconds, healing you and allies in the area for X. Enemies who enter the field are afflicted with Major Defile, reducing their healing received by 30% for 4 seconds. An ally within the field can activate the ​ Harvest synergy, healing for X Health over 5 seconds.

—————
• Heal reduced by 10%. This morph is very strong in PvP because of the AoE Major Defile. Its heal doesn’t need to be so big to justify use.

3. Living Vines

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Area - 20 x 12 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Grow vines to embrace you or the lowest health ally in front of you for 10 seconds. The vines heal the target for X Health each time they take damage. This effect can occur once every 1 second.

—————
• Slight increase to this skill. It’s very strong.

Leeching Vines

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Area - 20 x 12 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Grow vines to embrace you or the lowest health ally in front of you for 10 seconds. The vines heal the target for X Health each time they take damage. This effect can occur once every 1 second. The vines apply Minor Lifesteal to enemies that damage the target for 10 seconds, healing you and your allies for 600 Health every 1 second when damaging that enemy.

—————
• No changes other than what was changed due to the base skill

Living Trellis

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Area - 20 x 12 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Grow vines to embrace you or the lowest health ally in front of you for 10 seconds. The vines heal the target for X Health each time they take damage. This effect can occur once every 1 second. When the vines expire, they heal the target for an additional X Health.

—————
• No changes other than what was changed due to the base skill

4. Lotus Flower

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 20 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Embrace the lotus blessing, causing Light Attacks to restore X Health and your fully charged Heavy Attacks to restore X Health to you or a nearby ally for 20 seconds.

—————
• No changes

Green Blossom

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 20 meters
Duration - 20 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Embrace the lotus blessing, causing Light Attacks to restore X Health and your fully charged Heavy Attacks to restore X Health to you and a nearby ally for 20 seconds.

—————
• Increased radius for the heal to more easily reach an ally
• Will be very useful in providing group offheals when needed.

Lotus Blossom

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 24 seconds
Cost - Stamina
Embrace the lotus blessing, causing Light Attacks to restore X Health and your fully charged Heavy Attacks to restore X Health to you or a nearby ally for 20 seconds. Caster gains Major Savagery and Major Prophecy, increasing Weapon and Spell Critical by 2191 for 20 seconds.

—————
• A hybrid-friendly version of the current skill, and 4 seconds extra duration to fit better in rotations

5. Nature's Grasp

Cast Time - Instant
Range - 22 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Swing to targeted ally, healing them for X Health over 10 seconds. Gain 3 ultimate when this effect completes if you are in combat.

—————
• No changes

Nature's Embrace

Cast Time - Instant
Range - 22 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Swing to targeted ally, healing you and them for X Health over 10 seconds. Gain 3 ultimate when this effect completes if you are in combat.

—————
• No changes

Bursting Vines

Cast Time - Instant
Range - 22 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Swing to targeted ally, instantly healing them for X Health. Gain 10 ultimate when healing an ally under 60% health while you are in combat. Cooldown on this effect is 4 seconds.

—————
• No changes

• Accelerated Growth

When healing you or an ally under 40% Health with a Green Balance ability, gain Major Mending, increasing your healing done by 25% for 2 seconds.

—————
• Down from 3 seconds. Small nerf for a very strong passive

• Nature's Gift

When healing an ally with a Green Balance ability, gain 250 Magicka or 250 Stamina. Restores your lowest resource pool. This effect can occur once every 1 second.

—————
• No changes

• Emerald Moss

Increase Healing Done for Green Balance abilities by 2% for each Green Balance ability slotted.

—————
• No changes

• Maturation

When healing you or an ally, increase their Max Health by 2% for 10 seconds.

—————
• No longer grants Minor Toughness. This new buff will make Wardens valuable, while also not being so high in Health gain that it feels mandatory.

Winter's Embrace

Ult. Sleet Storm

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 10 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - 200 Ultimate
Twist a violent storm around you, causing nearby enemies to take X Frost Damage every 1 second for 6 seconds and have their Movement Speed reduced by 70%. Nearby allies gain Major Protection, reducing incoming Damage by 30%. While slotted, your Maximum Magicka is increased by 8%.

—————
• Last 2 seconds are gained back through a new passive
• Northern Storm’s Maximum Magicka is made part of the base morph.

Permafrost

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 10 meters
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - 200 Ultimate
Twist a violent storm around you, causing nearby enemies to take X Frost Damage every 1 second for 6 seconds and their Movement Speed is reduced by 70%. Nearby allies gain Major Protection, reducing incoming Damage by 30%. While slotted, your Maximum Magicka is increased by 8%. Enemies damaged three times are stunned for 3 seconds.

—————
• No changes other than what was changed due to the base skill

Summon Ice Elemental

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Single
Radius - 6 meters
Duration - 15 seconds
Cost - 300 Ultimate
Summon an ancient Ice Elemental to aid you in combat. The Ice Elemental deals X Frost Damage every 1 second to your target, and pulses every 2 seconds for X Frost Damage. The Ice Elemental also adds X Frost Damage to your Light Attacks and Heavy Attacks.
While active, you can toggle your Ice Elemental’s special ability to bond you to your summon, increasing your damage dealt with Cold-based attacks by 30% and halting the Ice Elemental’s duration timer while the bond holds. This bond consumes 1000 Magicka per second and halts all sources of Ultimate generation.

After 30 seconds in combat the Ice Elemental splits in two, with each individual summon dealing 75% Damage of the original Ice Elemental. In this state, the bond’s Magicka Drain is increased by an additional 100 for each second it remains active.

Spell Damage acquired which only affects Cold Damage is doubled while the Ice Elemental is active.

—————
• No longer increases Maximum Magicka by 8%
• The goal of this ultimate is to provide similar passive damage when active to the Eternal Guardian (single target damage output by the Ice Elemental itself should be the same as the Eternal Guardian’s passive damage), though this Ult cannot die (same as a Betty Netch). You also gain free damage on your light attacks and heavy attacks.
• You can “enrage” your Ult to increase your own damage by quite a lot (focused on Cold Damage), though it’ll cripple your Magicka and Ult Gen. Will require smart play to use this unique Ult in an effective manner. This will create a playstyle that builds off of ZOS’s intention of making Warden a very Ult reliant class.... hence the numerous sources of Ult gen including Major Heroism and massive importance of Ults to Wardens in all content.
• Magicka Wardens can save up their Magicka before unleashing this Ult, then rebuild their lost resources while their Ult regenerates to recast. This takes much longer than usual because Ult gen will be halted during much of the Ice Elemental’s bond, which is a problem that Eternal Guardian doesn’t have. Yet this risk gives great reward, since you will benefit for keeping up the Ice Elemental for a long time with high damage from your Ice Skills, though it needs to be considered how long it is worth it to remain bonded due to the lack of Ult gen and obvious Magicka Drain. Lastly it is absolutely huge for fitting the Ice Mage theme especially in PvE.
• The visual is like an Ice version of a DK’s Flames of Oblivion, though it will float in the direction of whoever you target. Your character would gain a faint icy aura when active which intensifies when the Ice Elemental is “bonded” to you.
• Permafrost is still a tough skill to give up especially in PvP (where it’s very useful)
• This is a much more risky Ult and requires smarter play for maximum benefit, whereas Eternal Guardian is much more reliable. It’s also only on one bar.
• Gives use to formerly weak sets such as Ysgramor’s or Succession, which barely provided any damage to a Warden’s rotation - new sets become viable for more build diversity

1. Frost Cloak

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 21 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Wrap a thick cloak of ice around you and nearby allies. Affected targets gain Major Resolve, increasing Physical Resistance by 5280, and Major Ward, increasing Spell Resistance by 5280 for 21 seconds.

—————
• No changes

Expansive Frost Cloak

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 28 meters
Duration - 24 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Wrap a thick cloak of ice around you and nearby allies. Affected targets gain Major Resolve, increasing Physical Resistance by 5280, and Major Ward, increasing Spell Resistance by 5280 for 24 seconds.

—————
• No changes

Ice Fortress

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 8 meters
Duration - 24 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Wrap a thick cloak of ice around you and nearby allies. Affected targets gain Major Resolve, increasing Physical Resistance by 5280, and Major Ward, increasing Spell Resistance by 5280 for 24 seconds. You gain Minor Protection, reducing incoming damage by 8% for 24 seconds.

—————
• No changes

2. Impaling Shards

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 6 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Skewer enemies with icy shards, dealing X Frost Damage in the area every 1 second over 10 seconds and reducing Movement Speed by 30% for 3 seconds. Damage done is based on your Max Health.

—————
• No changes

Gripping Shards

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 6 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Skewer enemies with icy shards, dealing X Frost Damage in the area every 1 second over 10 seconds and reducing Movement Speed by 30% for 3 seconds. On cast, enemies in the area also become immobilized for 3 seconds.
10% of Damage done is returned as healing.
Damage done is based on your Max Health.

—————
• Gain 10% more Damage
• Minor amount of healing to make this skill a little bit better (currently it is too weak, serving only as a root)

Winter's Revenge

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Area
Radius - 6 meters
Duration - 10 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Skewer enemies with icy shards, dealing X Frost Damage at a targeted location and then X Frost Damage every 1 second for 10 seconds and reducing Movement Speed by 30% for 3 seconds.

—————
• Duration reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
• The last two seconds are gained back through a passive - no worries lol
• Added a small bit of initial hit damage, making the loss of the 11/12th second in a rotation (after passive is unlocked) not so punishing for non-super top tier players or those using static rotations.

3. Arctic Wind

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 5 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Envelop yourself in winter winds, healing for 15% of Max Health instantly and an additional 3% Health every second over 5 seconds.

—————
• Increased healing to help this poor skill. Better in PvE, but now actual useable in PvP. Increased the total healing to 30% if you wait the full duration, which is in line with a NB’s Dark Cloak, and closer to a DK’s Dragon Blood than before

Polar Wind

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 5 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Envelop yourself in winter winds, healing for 15% instantly and an additional 3% Health every second over 5 seconds. Heals up to 3 nearby allies for 8% of your Max Health each on cast.

—————
• Now actually useful for healing allies and yourself if you are a tank. Reduced the heal to allies a lot because 8% is plenty enough now that it hits 3 targets (was previously only 1 target).

Arctic Blast

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Single
Radius - 6 meters
Duration - 8 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Draw upon ancient magic to blast your enemy with permafrost, dealing X Frost Damage and an additional X Frost Damage over 8 seconds. The target is stunned for 2 seconds. Nearby enemies take X Frost Damage.

The original target is afflicted with a stack of Freezing, causing them to take 1% increased Frost Damage from all sources for 15 seconds. This debuff can be stacked 5 times, up to 5% increased Frost Damage taken. Freezing cannot be purged.

—————
• Now scales off Maximum Magicka and Spell Damage
• Reaches a 10 second duration with the new passive
• This is the animation of the skill from the Morrowind trailer itself! Here from 1:56 -1:59 is the animation.
• This gives Warden an alternate stun than what is provided from Deep Fissure, though it is not as powerful since it isn’t delayed (though this stun can be properly aimed), does not deal AoE Damage as high as that from Deep Fissure, and only stuns for 2 seconds vs Deep Fissure’s 3 second stun
• It greatly fits the Ice Mage theme and makes them a viable spec. This skill won’t deal high damage... same general damage as Destructive Touch, but now with a debuff that is mainly stackable in PvE and simply supports the Ice Mage playstyle.
• The inability to purge this skill is actually a nerf. This is a very weak debuff. Had it become purgeable, players casting purge would accidentally cleanse this weak debuff instead of other, much more dangerous negative effects.

4. Crystallized Shield

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Spin a shield of ice around you, absorbing up to X damage from 3 projectiles. Each time you absorb a projectile you restore 400 Magicka.

—————
• Reduction (nerf) to Magicka Return
• Now scales the Damage Shield and Magicka Return from your Maximum Magicka stat like most other Damage shields. This skill is no longer OP on PvP Stam Warden, while not ruining PvP Mag Warden. The defensive aspect will be much diminished on Stam Warden.
• It will still provide some defense for PvP Stam Warden due to the sheer strength of the projectile shields, but damage will now deep through much more.

Shimmering Shield

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Spin a shield of ice around you, absorbing up to X damage from 3 projectiles. The first projectile you absorb grants you Major Heroism for 6 seconds, granting you 3 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds. Each time you absorb a projectile you restore 400 Magicka.

—————
• Only the first projectile absorbed will grant Major Heroism. Still an extremely powerful skill, but it won’t grant you nearly as much Ult if not used constantly.

Crystallized Slab

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Self
Duration - 6 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Spin a shield of ice around you, absorbing up to X damage from 3 projectiles. Each time you absorb a projectile you restore 400 Magicka and launch one icy bolt per second over 2 seconds back at the enemy, dealing X Frost Damage each.

—————
• More projectiles. A buff that makes it a bit more enticing vs the amazing Major Heroism of the other morph
• This skill does not benefit from the extra two seconds given by the new Icy Aura passive

5. Frozen Gate

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 5 meters
Duration - 30 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Summon an ancient portal, which arms after 1.5 seconds and lasts for 30 seconds. When triggered the enemy is teleported to you, immobilized for 3 seconds, and dealt X Frost Damage and afflicted with Major Maim reducing their damage done by 30% for 4 seconds. You can have up to 3 Frozen Gates active at a time.

—————
• Added Frozen Device to the base morph
• This skill does not benefit from the extra two seconds given by the new Icy Aura passive

Frozen Rune

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 4 meters
Duration - 36 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Summon a deadly rune, which arms after 2 seconds and lasts for 36 seconds. When triggered the rune explodes in a 6 meter radius. Up to 4 enemies caught take X Frost Damage and are set Off Balance. You can have up to 2 Frozen Runes active at a time.

—————
• No longer teleports or immobilizes
• A target cannot take damage from more than one rune every 2 seconds from the same caster
• Damage is increased as high as a Daedric Mine. It is no longer a teleport or immobilize skill, but a trap that deals dangerous amounts of damage when stepped on. The radius is smaller, but it extends out a bit to catch more enemies when triggered.

Frozen Retreat

Cast Time - Instant
Target - Ground
Range - 28 meters
Radius - 5 meters
Duration - 36 seconds
Cost - Magicka
Summon an ancient portal, which arms after 1.5 seconds and lasts for 30 seconds. When triggered the enemy is teleported to you, immobilized for 3 seconds, and dealt X Frost Damage. An ally in the portal can activate the Icy Escape synergy, teleporting them to you and granting them Major Expedition, increasing their Movement Speed by 30% for 8 seconds. You can have up to 3 Frozen Retreats active at a time.

—————
• No longer applies Major Maim
• If the player does not want the Deadly Rune (Damage morph) and instead prefers a “pulling” morph, they can choose between keeping the base skill (formerly the Frozen Device morph) or getting this synergy morph like before. In essence all that happened was the addition of a damage-based morph. No buffs or nerfs.

• Glacial Presence

Increase chance of applying Chilled to enemies with Winter's Embrace abilities by 200%.

—————
• No changes

• Frozen Armor

Increases your Physical and Spell Resistance by 500 for each Winter's Embrace ability slotted.

—————
• No changes

• Icy Aura

Reduce the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 15%.
Increases the duration of your Cold Damage abilities by 2 seconds.

—————
• Buff to Magicka Wardens, specifically with Ice Staves, all while not at all harming the viability of Ice Staff Tanks. Way more viable build diversity and different set usage. In fact, this buff will help Ice Staff Tanks who choose to cast skills now buffed by this passive.
• Manages to help indirectly buff Ice Staff Wardens *without* directly buffing Ice Staff Damage to make Flame/Lightning not viable

• Freezing Toxin

Increase your Poison, Magic, and Cold Damage by 5%.

—————
• 1% Damage nerf to Magicka and Cold Damage which is fine in light of other buffs
• Stamina Warden buff for more PvE Damage and Bow Damage buff in particular

The overall effect:
• PvE Mag Warden can play as an Ice Mage for high damage (not possible before), or play exactly as they do now and still deal high damage
• PvE Stam Warden is buffed overall, an has a bit more versatility in terms of your spammables than before. The buffs are significantly stronger on a Bow/Bow build
• PvE Warden Tank is about the same. Less shielding/Ult gain from Shimmering Shield but now they have better self/group healing
• PvE Warden Healer is better and benefits much more from its own class skills now, with some minor, necessary nerfs
• PvP Magicka Warden is much better and can play a powerful Ice Mage or exactly as they did before - both have stuns too
• PvP Stamina Warden gets nerfed a bit because it was too strong, but is still great despite changes without being purely OP
• PvP Healer is about the same
• PvP Tank is slightly nerfed due to Shimmering Shield changes, which is okay because it was simply too strong as it was

If you don’t like the changes it’s okay because Wrobel would never allow an Ice Mage DPS to be even remotely viable. If you do like the changes then..... well sorry lol. You’ll be even more depressed playing your Warden now, knowing what easily could’ve been had Ice Destruction Magic not become a strictly tanking element. Even if not as extensive as what I’ve done here, all classes deserve a rework after becoming so homogenized over the past 1-2 years. Enjoy

Avran_Sylt

Only looked over a small part of it so far (awesome, btw), but is

Summoning Ice Elemental, Barswap, Summon Guardian (it has no cost)

Intended?

Rohamad_Ali

This is exciting ! Love the subterranean assault suggestions . Animal companion changes too . Good job Vaoh .

Vaoh

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

Only looked over a small part of it so far (awesome, btw), but is

Summoning Ice Elemental, Barswap, Summon Guardian (it has no cost)

Intended?

The Bear ult still has to be doublebarred. Ice Elemental is a single slot. So it shouldn’t be possible to have both.

If you mean like casting Ice Elemental and then swapping skills, I’d say Ice Elemental should despawn at that point.

Vaoh

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

This is exciting ! Love the subterranean assault suggestions . Animal companion changes too . Good job Vaoh .

Ty! This is really the sort of thing I wanted from the Warden. I still like the class as is, but the versatility in what is viable vs weak is so small atm.

I really do believe these changes would pretty much fix everything for this class and help it live up to its expectations alongside way more viable builds to play.

Rohamad_Ali

Vaoh wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

This is exciting ! Love the subterranean assault suggestions . Animal companion changes too . Good job Vaoh .

Ty! This is really the sort of thing I wanted from the Warden. I still like the class as is, but the versatility in what is viable vs weak is so small atm.

I really do believe these changes would pretty much fix everything for this class and help it live up to its expectations alongside way more viable builds to play.

It's disappointing that Warden got nerfed in ways it shouldn't and places that needed a boost like animal companion Bear got passed over again . Ice Elemental would be so epic . Oh well lol thanks for the good dream though

Ps , We should be summoning wolves , Tigers , and those tree ladies too . NPC Wardens should not be more epic then player Warden !

Vaoh

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

This is exciting ! Love the subterranean assault suggestions . Animal companion changes too . Good job Vaoh .

Ty! This is really the sort of thing I wanted from the Warden. I still like the class as is, but the versatility in what is viable vs weak is so small atm.

I really do believe these changes would pretty much fix everything for this class and help it live up to its expectations alongside way more viable builds to play.

It's disappointing that Warden got nerfed in ways it shouldn't and places that needed a boost like animal companion Bear got passed over again . Ice Elemental would be so epic . Oh well lol thanks for the good dream though

Yep np lol There is so much potential with all of the classes atm but Warden is the only one I really care about. It’s feels so held back atm.

Rohamad_Ali

Vaoh wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

This is exciting ! Love the subterranean assault suggestions . Animal companion changes too . Good job Vaoh .

Ty! This is really the sort of thing I wanted from the Warden. I still like the class as is, but the versatility in what is viable vs weak is so small atm.

I really do believe these changes would pretty much fix everything for this class and help it live up to its expectations alongside way more viable builds to play.

It's disappointing that Warden got nerfed in ways it shouldn't and places that needed a boost like animal companion Bear got passed over again . Ice Elemental would be so epic . Oh well lol thanks for the good dream though

Yep np lol There is so much potential with all of the classes atm but Warden is the only one I really care about. It’s feels so held back atm.

Imagine choices in guardian besides Bear ...

Anhedonie

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Vaoh

Anhedonie wrote: »

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Warden has 4 damage skills (currently a big issue with this class) and you want to remove two of them Would a spriggan pet really make up for those? Also Wardens have no class execute, so losing their delayed damage skill would make them very weak....

Anti_Virus

give shalks the haunting curse treatment. have it go off twice in one global cooldown.

first after three secs and again three seconds later. would help out dps rotations if magic sorc gets the buff I see no reason why warden can't get it either.

Starlight_Knight

I agree with some things - disagree with others.
But we're both in agreement that the warden needs some changes. However i doubt an "overhaul" will be on the cards.

However "Bear" in mind that the class is only a year old. All the original classes were quite unbalanced when they came out to.
I think because of this the warden should be looked at seriously by the devs -
Just hope our class reps are listened to at there upcoming meet up.

RedRook

Is Frigid Torrent really supposed to be a morph of Dive?

And god I wish they'd look at this and do an overhaul, but if they haven't fixed templar after all this time I don't even have a flicker of hope. Bandaid, bandaid, unnecessary nerf, bandaid, pointless buff, etc. seems to be what they're more comfortable with.

Vaoh

RedRook wrote: »

Is Frigid Torrent really supposed to be a morph of Dive?

And god I wish they'd look at this and do an overhaul, but if they haven't fixed templar after all this time I don't even have a flicker of hope. Bandaid, bandaid, unnecessary nerf, bandaid, pointless buff, etc. seems to be what they're more comfortable with.

Yep! Dive is the class spammable, so an Ice spammable would have to fit in here as a morph. The other morph carries on with the usual Dive functionality but works for both Mag and Stam, essentially mixing Screaming Cliff Racer and Cutting Dive.

Vaoh

Hayden_Knight wrote: »

I agree with some things - disagree with others.
But we're both in agreement that the warden needs some changes. However i doubt an "overhaul" will be on the cards.

However "Bear" in mind that the class is only a year old. All the original classes were quite unbalanced when they came out to.
I think because of this the warden should be looked at seriously by the devs -
Just hope our class reps are listened to at there upcoming meet up.

The main issue though is that the original four classes were released feeling very distinct. Overtime (mainly the past 2 years) they have been made to feel way similar. The homogenization of the classes is exceedingly noticeable now.

The Warden is worse though imo because it released in a state that feels as homogenized as the other four classes currently do. There’s no past history to look back on to see what the class looked like when it felt 100% “unique” - it simply never has been. The overhaul I made up here pretty much solves the Warden’s issues if only Ice Magic wasn’t strictly for tanking....

Anhedonie

Vaoh wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Warden has 4 damage skills (currently a big issue with this class) and you want to remove two of them Would a spriggan pet really make up for those? Also Wardens have no class execute, so losing their delayed damage skill would make them very weak....

Sorcs don't have a class spammable and Force Pulse is working more than fine for them. Also, most wardens run FP anyway.
As for Shalks...turn it into a dot, into instant AOE, into...anything, but this clunky garbage.

_Ahala_

Anhedonie wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Warden has 4 damage skills (currently a big issue with this class) and you want to remove two of them Would a spriggan pet really make up for those? Also Wardens have no class execute, so losing their delayed damage skill would make them very weak....

Sorcs don't have a class spammable and Force Pulse is working more than fine for them. Also, most wardens run FP anyway.
As for Shalks...turn it into a dot, into instant AOE, into...anything, but this clunky garbage.

Deep Fissure is one of the few remaining class skills that the few remaining Magdens use in pvp... please do not turn it into a dot or make it instant... both of those options would ruin its burst potential... then what?... Magden will be forced to run all weapon and guild skill and fight at npc levels of predictability

And why would any Magden run fp when ew exists?

Avran_Sylt

Personally, I'm of the opinion that if there is going to be any DPS ice spammable, it needs to be either built for (Master's Ice Staff), or sacrifice something.

Reason being that Ice has a lot of CC built into many of its skills and procs, so making that ranged is gonna be quite a pain in the arse to any other magicka build that runs low stamina.

So, make whatever Ice spammable you want, melee based. If you want it to be interesting in any fashion, that is.

_Ahala_

People insist the reason the Ice staff weapon is weak and must stay weak is because it has snares and roots... ok, so the 60% snare on blockade and the root off the chilled status is why it must stay weak for damage? Why is it that two handed weapons get to stay a viable option in pvp when stampede has the same 60% snare and dizzying swing stuns (stuns with high damage cause magden was a special case and needed special nerfs /salty sarcasm) and why does s&b also get the same 60% snare with low slash and an excellent hard cc with reverb bash? Snares are not unique... so a CHANCE to root (redundant with frost clench) is the reason? Really?

Ice is conflicted between dps and tanking (as a DESTRO staff) and needs a rework (LOL ~1600 damage shield on heavy attack) They need to add a new staff type entirely for Magicka tanking (alteration?) and make its complete with tanking actives and passives and return ice staff and ice damage to the cryomancers...

Furthermore, Magden has a whole tree based on ice, the element of snares and control, but it can’t get any ranged snares or roots because that would be op? (hello vamps bane... how are you doing today crippling grasp) Not gonna even talk about the lack of stuns for Magden becuase that problem has been discussed enough and should be obvious at this point...

Why does ice have to suck so bad? Why even bother making a class with an ice tree full of weak health scaling damage skills when the concept of tanks doing damage can only either be underwhelming (as it is currently) or overpowered (as it should never be). Just give ice staves and warden ice abilities some dps relevance already and give us a complete Magicka tanking option with alteration staves (None of this all dps actives with some tanking passives design and ditch this pathetic damage shield / taunt on a heavy attack concept... dropping block doesn’t work against one shot mechanics)

TLDR: Buff ice damage and warden ice abilities for dps and give us a new Magicka tanking weapon with logical tanking actives and passives so Magicka tanks can be a thing and so mages have a defensive alternative to damage shields

ArchMikem

Impaling Shards damage scales off max health. Wut?

Shouldnt that skill be the Warden version of a Sorcs liquid lightning?

LeHarrt91

ArchMikem wrote: »

Impaling Shards damage scales off max health. Wut?

Shouldnt that skill be the Warden version of a Sorcs liquid lightning?

Yes it scales with Health as it is in the Wardens Tanking skill tree, there is a morph that makes it scale with Max Magicka and Spell damage.

Most of the skills in Winters Embrace scale with Health, the Arctic Wind skill, the ice shield.

Vaoh

ArchMikem wrote: »

Impaling Shards damage scales off max health. Wut?

Shouldnt that skill be the Warden version of a Sorcs liquid lightning?

Wrobel wanted Winter’s Embrace to be a *strictly* tanking skill. It was only after lots of PTS complaints that the Winter’s Revenge morph was made to scale for Magicka DPS.

_Ahala_

It’s a shame that a whole tree scales off health for damage because the nature of tank dps skills are that they can only be underwhelming or overpowered... why can’t we have tank morphs and dps morphs for each skill?

Vaoh

_Ahala_ wrote: »

It’s a shame that a whole tree scales off health for damage because the nature of tank dps skills are that they can only be underwhelming or overpowered... why can’t we have tank morphs and dps morphs for each skill?

Exactly! I wish the Devs were at least more creative with their morph choices so that they don’t have to choose to make skills either Health-based or Mag-based. Two morphs = there can be the option for both choices.

Anhedonie

_Ahala_ wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Warden has 4 damage skills (currently a big issue with this class) and you want to remove two of them Would a spriggan pet really make up for those? Also Wardens have no class execute, so losing their delayed damage skill would make them very weak....

Sorcs don't have a class spammable and Force Pulse is working more than fine for them. Also, most wardens run FP anyway.
As for Shalks...turn it into a dot, into instant AOE, into...anything, but this clunky garbage.

Deep Fissure is one of the few remaining class skills that the few remaining Magdens use in pvp... please do not turn it into a dot or make it instant... both of those options would ruin its burst potential... then what?... Magden will be forced to run all weapon and guild skill and fight at npc levels of predictability

And why would any Magden run fp when ew exists?

After all these nerfs in pve, I couldn't give a *** about pvp.

Shalks is an awful skill. It has to go.

Vaoh

Anhedonie wrote: »

_Ahala_ wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Warden has 4 damage skills (currently a big issue with this class) and you want to remove two of them Would a spriggan pet really make up for those? Also Wardens have no class execute, so losing their delayed damage skill would make them very weak....

Sorcs don't have a class spammable and Force Pulse is working more than fine for them. Also, most wardens run FP anyway.
As for Shalks...turn it into a dot, into instant AOE, into...anything, but this clunky garbage.

Deep Fissure is one of the few remaining class skills that the few remaining Magdens use in pvp... please do not turn it into a dot or make it instant... both of those options would ruin its burst potential... then what?... Magden will be forced to run all weapon and guild skill and fight at npc levels of predictability

And why would any Magden run fp when ew exists?

After all these nerfs in pve, I couldn't give a *** about pvp.

Shalks is an awful skill. It has to go.

Why do you hate Scorch so much? It’s a good skill with plenty of counterplay. Useful in both PvE and PvP. Also you have to consider all content when balancing stuff - not okay to be biased or you shaft lots of players......

In this scenario PvP actually caused Deep Fissure to get buffed in PvE scenarios (though Subterranean Assault was nerfed)

zTrok

Very awesome job here.

I agree with almost all of the changes, there's just two things that I would suggest tweaking.

First tweak I would suggest is a thematic change to "Frigid Torrent" I absolutely love the idea of the skill itself, but having some random piece of ice falling from the sky doesn't exactly make all too much sense for the *animal companions* skill tree. I'd simply suggest making it into an Ice Wraith or other icy animal.

Other tweak I would make is to the purposed change to Arctic Blast. Overall, I do love the idea of shooting out balls of ice (maybe make it shoot icicles?) But without ability to purge it gives little counterplay in PvP. I would simply suggest the ability to purge it.

Personal favorite suggestion was the idea of growing swarm becoming essentially Warden Engulfing Flames ^^

hedna123b14_ESO

Love most of the Animal Companions changes besides Subterranian assault. Speaking strictly in terms of PvE, to do the most damage this skill has to be cast on cooldown, meaning 3 casts per rotation. This fact is the main reason warden has sustain issues in PvE at times. I get nerfing the damage of this skill for PvP's sake, but if you keep or raise its cost, while reducing the damage so significantly (even with notch up) it wont be useful. Possible solution is keeping the damage nerf, but elreducing its cost OR refunding a part of its cost based on the number of targets affected (10% per target up to 60%).

Vaoh

zTrok wrote: »

Very awesome job here.

I agree with almost all of the changes, there's just two things that I would suggest tweaking.

First tweak I would suggest is a thematic change to "Frigid Torrent" I absolutely love the idea of the skill itself, but having some random piece of ice falling from the sky doesn't exactly make all too much sense for the *animal companions* skill tree. I'd simply suggest making it into an Ice Wraith or other icy animal.

Other tweak I would make is to the purposed change to Arctic Blast. Overall, I do love the idea of shooting out balls of ice (maybe make it shoot icicles?) But without ability to purge it gives little counterplay in PvP. I would simply suggest the ability to purge it.

Personal favorite suggestion was the idea of growing swarm becoming essentially Warden Engulfing Flames ^^

Ty!!

You’re definitely right about Frigid Torrent being kinda weird as a morph of Dive. I don’t think it’s too much of an issue though because Animal Companions and Winter’s Embrace are at least still part of the same class (I know it’s a bad excuse lol).... and there’s like no room in Winter’s Embrace for a spammable whereas Dive had a very clear open spot and was already a spammable. It was a perfect opportunity but was simply located in the wrong skill tree I decided a technicality like that is not important enough to hold back the potential of the idea I had.

Your idea of using something like an Ice Wraith definitely works! I just really want a sort of ice shard spammable, and I made it strike four times to give it a much higher chance of proccing specific sets. It’d also feel and look like a totally unique spammable from any other, whereas an Ice Wraith would likely feel pretty similar to Dive since it’s a pet striking the target.

As for Arctic Blast, the “Freezing” debuff I called it (which was the 1/2/3/4/5% increased Frost Damage taken) is only non-purgeable because imo it’d be a more powerful skill if it *was* purgeable. My thought-process was that this debuff would get applied a lot, so if you are trying to purge off a specific DoT or something (as an example, maybe Poison Injection), you would instead purge off this weak debuff and essentially waste a negative effect cleanse. The Siphoner CP already does this and is super annoying/shouldn’t be a thing because it makes Purge less effective. As for the DoT Damage of Arctic Blast, that would definitely be purgeable.

Vaoh

hedna123b14_ESO wrote: »

Love most of the Animal Companions changes besides Subterranian assault. Speaking strictly in terms of PvE, to do the most damage this skill has to be cast on cooldown, meaning 3 casts per rotation. This fact is the main reason warden has sustain issues in PvE at times. I get nerfing the damage of this skill for PvP's sake, but if you keep or raise its cost, while reducing the damage so significantly (even with notch up) it wont be useful. Possible solution is keeping the damage nerf, but elreducing its cost OR refunding a part of its cost based on the number of targets affected (10% per target up to 60%).

My idea in terms of Subterranean Assault for PvE was that Stam Wardens should use it in the same way as Mag Wardens, meaning only in AoE fights. It should also keep the debuffs to remain a really good support skill for tanks/Healers that might want to use it. I nerfed the damage by 20% for the sake of reducing its burst potential in PvP which is clearly too strong rn.

So the net effect would hopefully be that casting Subterranean Assault on cooldown is no longer the way to deal the highest damage in single target, no longer forcing Stam Warden to have to use this so often.

However, Stam Warden would counter this thanks to the increase in DPS from Freezing Toxin, the Wolf Ult (should be a huge help and rarely ever die), and the increased sustain/damage from the Bull Netch buff and lots of free resources if occasionally casting Green Blossom. Plus not having to use Subterranean Assault so often should help sustain a lot. Also they’d get a lot of extra AoE DPS from Piercing Dive to make up for what was lost from the nerf.

_Ahala_

Anhedonie wrote: »

_Ahala_ wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

Sorry, but Shalks skill have to go. It's both visually and mechanically awful.

Also, I think we can ditch the spammable, consireding there are many options. We could get a spriggan pet instead, that could deal damage and heal at the same time.

Warden has 4 damage skills (currently a big issue with this class) and you want to remove two of them Would a spriggan pet really make up for those? Also Wardens have no class execute, so losing their delayed damage skill would make them very weak....

Sorcs don't have a class spammable and Force Pulse is working more than fine for them. Also, most wardens run FP anyway.
As for Shalks...turn it into a dot, into instant AOE, into...anything, but this clunky garbage.

Deep Fissure is one of the few remaining class skills that the few remaining Magdens use in pvp... please do not turn it into a dot or make it instant... both of those options would ruin its burst potential... then what?... Magden will be forced to run all weapon and guild skill and fight at npc levels of predictability

And why would any Magden run fp when ew exists?

After all these nerfs in pve, I couldn't give a *** about pvp.

Shalks is an awful skill. It has to go.

You don’t care? What a revelation... PvP exists and is an important part of the game that many players enjoy... Why would you want to absolutely ruin the PvP magden more than it has been? You not caring is an awful excuse... By the way, I main Magden for everything PvE and PvP and would love some PvE buffs... but nerfing one of the last remaining PvP viable class skills for the sake of PvE is not the way to go...